The main battle for audiences during the festive period kicks off on Christmas Eve, with BBC1 showing the premičre of the Disney film The Santa Clause and the action thriller Speed, while ITV opens with its best film of the whole holiday season: Tim Burton’s, Nightmare Before Christmas. BBC2, Channel 4 and Channel 5 all… Continue reading Christmas Day TV Viewing
Ad agency, Abbott Mead Vickers (AMV) has confirmed that it is in discussions with US advertising giant, Omnicom, and is preparing to accept a £350 million takeover bid. Omnicom already holds a 27.7% stake in AMV’s ordinary share capital and if this deal goes through it will take control of all the remaining shares.AMV decided… Continue reading Omnicom Moves In On AMV With £350m Offer
BBC Parliament arrived on Sky’s digital satellite TV yesterday with live coverage of the State Opening of Parliament by Her Majesty the Queen.BBC Parliament provides live coverage of the House Of Commons, proceedings from the House Of Lords and about 25 hours of Select Committee coverage each week of the parliamentary year. The channel’s coverage… Continue reading BBC Parliament Goes Digital
Granada released its financial results today for the year ending 26 September 1998, reporting significant growth in its media and hospitality sectors.Pre-tax profit showed an increase of 13%, taking it up to £735 million, and turnover was at £3.98 billion, an increase of 10%. The Group’s earnings per share were up 13% to 57p.Granada’s four… Continue reading Granada Financial Results Reveal Growth
British Telecom has announced that it is to buy a 50% share in US-based Excite Inc’s British subsidiary, Excite UK. The agreement will further BT’s presence in internet advertising and transactions and brings it firmly into competition with the big Net names like Yahoo, Netscape Netcentre, Microsoft Network and America Online (AOL).Earlier today, AOL announced… Continue reading BT In A Partnership To Excite
Media research firm, Arbitron, has begun the first field tests of a new method of audience measurement for television and radio.The new device – the personal portable meter (PPM) – is the size of a pager, and is carried by people listening to the various media. The device picks up an inaudible identification code which… Continue reading Arbitron Test Run New Audience Measurement Device
Breakfast TV station, GMTV, is to see a significant reduction in the fee it pays to the Treasury each year in return for its ITV licence. The station, which is believed to be losing around £15 million a year, will pay a proposed tender of £20 million from January 1999; its Treasury payment last year… Continue reading GMTV Sees Cut In Treasury Payment
Front Row, the company which provides cable customers with a pay-on-demand movie service, has announced this week that it has begun searching for a public relations and advertising agency to spearhead its communications development into the digital era.According to its first set of buy rate figures, the movies-on-demand service was three times more popular than… Continue reading Front Row Seeks New Hands On Deck For Digital Launch
Internet service provider America Online has confirmed it has agreed to buy Netscape for £2.55 billion, spelling a radical shift in the internet industry (see Netscape And AOL May Merge). The agreement will consolidate AOL’s position as the world’s biggest on-line service and as a major rival to Bill Gates’ giant Microsoft. AOL will become… Continue reading Internet Wars Hot Up In AOL Deal For Netscape
Channel 4 has created the post of programme evaluation controller in order to assess the commercial value of each of its programme strands.Jules Oldroyd will take up the post and will be responsible for highlighting new opportunities in the channel’s schedule from a commercial perspective. Oldroyd will also act as a link between C4’s Advertising… Continue reading Channel 4 To Look At Programmes’ Commercial Value
